Problem Solving – Karyn Easton

Apr 30

by Karyn in Film Production, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Film Production, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Final Cut

Film Mark 2 is Finally Done – I really hated my first film so much! The audio was way too noisy and my voiceover audio really wasn’t great either. However, after making a second film, even though I still had clips missing I was feeling more satisfied. In my last tutorial, Jonathan gave me some great pointers regarding music and sound. Looking back over some of my videos, it’s now changed my whole view of them. I think if I was doing them again and adding music, I would take a much more subtle approach. I now find myself taking so much more notice of sound and audio when watching films. This whole film making exercise has been a real ‘eye opener’ for me! Jonathan suggested that possibly tweaking the music in my film might improve it. He gave me a particular tip that I really wanted to try. I went back to the drawing board and I tweaked the latter part of the audio. I slowed down the music to echo the darkening tone of the narrative. I’d never really considered the jungly tone of the piano before, but slowing down the audio really did seem to add impact. […]

Apr 21

Film Mark 2

Exploring Alternatives – In my Film Production blog, I talked about how unhappy I was with my first film. Things haven’t got any easier. I still feel very poorly, but the perfectionist in me is not prepared to let this go. I absolutely ‘hate’ the first version of my film now! Unfortunately, I just seem to have such a severe creative block at the moment. One of the greatest challenges I faced was trying to come up with yet another script! At one point I thought ‘oh stuff it’ I’ll just stick with what I’ve done. However I just couldn’t do that. I went to bed feeling pretty ill and pretty down. They say that sometimes when you are facing a problem, your brain will help you to work things out while you are asleep. Last week in my state of feeling so down ‘my brain, my subconscious the universe, god’ or call it what you like came to the rescue overnight while asleep! This morning I remembered something that I’d long been aware of yet forgotten. This was the old concept of ‘The Eighth Day’. In some theological interpretations, the “Eighth Day” symbolises the day of resurrection or the […]

Apr 20

by Karyn in Film Production, My Learning, Photography, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Film Production, My Learning, Photography, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Film Production

Assembly of Ideas – After exploring a few possibilities and ideas for the film I set about trying to assemble something. After all of my previous experimentation with many ideas I finally settled on a concept. I decided to produce a film that not only covered what I have been working on over the last two years of my MA but also gives a glimpse of what I’m doing now. The video was to form a timeline. Unfortunately, I really do struggle when it comes to sound and voice-overs. By the end of this long process I had actually attempted to narrate my film around five times. I spent literally hours trying to perfect both my narrative, voice-over and audio levels. Multiple Attempts at Audio and Voice-overs Below is a screenshot of the files as they began to stack up on my desktop, so far I’ve had 5 attempts. Even after hours of trying I’m still not happy with the end result! In fact I’m deeply unhappy with it. On the plus side though I’ve learned a ‘ton of stuff’ about audio production. Learning How to Use Audio in Premier Pro The first thing I had […]

Mar 11

by Karyn in Artists, Lectures, Low Residency, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Lectures, Low Residency, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Low Residency Day #4

Arduino Tones & Artist Talk – Today was a really busy day because my group had a very brain intensive technical making session with Karsten Goodwin. This was followed by an artist talk by Nathan Télémaqu. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, but I was soooo tired at the end of the day. Interactive sound and light workshop (LDR trumpet) In class, we explored microcontrollers and electronics. We looked at the interplay of light sound and code in a project based learning environment. We used light to bend tones on a custom circuit and learnt how to program and in order to play our own custom instruments. Below are photos of some of the steps that were taken to make our custom circuits and program it to work with an Arduino Uno. The Workshop Environment The Breadboard Wiring Steps A Selection of Karsten’s Slides Below is a gallery of some of Karsten’s main information slides for future reference. These include his GitHub address where he will be posting the full presentation. The Fully Connected Breadboard and Arduino The Results The start of this video short shows Karsten with the kit fully wired, followed by […]

Feb 27

First Looks

First Footage from the ‘Balance of Power’ Mobile It feels like it has been a long journey to get to this point, but at last the mobile is up and running. It stands around 3m tall and is by far one of the largest structures that I have ever made all by myself. Although, I haven’t kept an hourly diary of how long the mobile has taken to complete, I know that it has taken many weeks. At the moment the balance of the mobile is quite precarious and this is quite a threat to the project so I need to ensure that it is really secure going forward. I already had one mishap this morning while trying to hang it up. All of the pieces ended up on the floor, so this is far from ideal if it is to be transported then hung. My intention is to ensure that all of the mobile elements are secured so that if the balance does tip then everything will be relatively contained. In many ways hanging the mobile is just the very start of the journey as there is so much more hidden in the whole structure. However, I will begin […]

Feb 04

by Karyn in 3d, Augmented Reality, Collaborations, Experimentation, Photography, Problem Solving, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Augmented Reality, Collaborations, Experimentation, Photography, Problem Solving, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs

Keep it Moving

Small Steps – Big Changes. I had to write yesterday off almost completely as I had so many non MA activities to complete. These duties ranged from setting up a new phone for a family member, to composing and posting an important letter. However, today was much more productive. I managed to test my concept and augment a number of my mobile elements. Early indicators suggest that ‘all things going well’ – I should be able to realise my vision. My greatest fear was that the mobile wouldn’t augment very well. I also worried that the elements were too close together, and as such would interfere with one another when augmenting. It appears that as long as the user/viewer is careful then each item should augment separately. Up to this point it has been a bit of a risk. Today the concept however was tested and seems to work. Athena the robot continues to 3d print but this activity is also not without risk. Jamie (my collaboration partner’s) 3d printer isn’t always consistent and parts often become loose from the 3d printer bed. This ultimately leads to print failures which is slowing down the project. On a more positive […]

Jan 29

by Karyn in Final Major Project, Ideas, My Learning, My Work, Problem Solving, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Final Major Project, Ideas, My Learning, my work, Problem Solving, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

The Concept

Hidden Depths – I have decided to call my mobile ‘The Balance of Power – Unity in Bits’. My mobile represents a ‘balance’ of power play between the major players in the AI art generation industries, versus the millions of voiceless, hidden artists who had their images used (often without permission) to feed machine learning algorithms. The mobile is based on binary code and the lines of code spell out the words ‘Unity in Bits’. Why ‘Unity in Bits’? This is an ambiguous play on words. The rise of the digital age coupled with social media and AI has led to a fragmentation of our society – namely, our ‘unity in bits’. For example we have divided communities, surveillance capitalism and lack of free speech. However, I hope that through interaction with my mobile ‘unity can be found in bits’ only this time ‘bits’ refers to the ‘bits’ and ‘bytes’ of binary code. My mobile project poses the question can that which has sought to divide us, actually bring us closer together?

Hanging Around

Choosing a Suitable Stringing Method – Choosing suitable materials and a hanging method for my mobile has to be one of the most challenging aspects so far. I’m way beyond my comfort zone with this! Noah one of my fellow students shared a link by the creative force that once was, namely David Bowie. Im going to put what he said here so that when I struggle I’ve got a point of reference to start things moving again. Today, having produced enough mobile elements to explore hanging and stringing I started running into multiple problems. Some of these included: 1). What kind of stringing method would I like to use 2). How do I arrange the elements neatly enough so that the viewer understands them as binary. 3). What materials should I use to actually string and hang the mobile? 4). Will a smaller prototype actually translate into a much larger one? The problems above were to name only a few. I spent the evening trying to source suitable hanging materials. I managed to source a very good older pdf on the subject of mobile making which helped a lot! How to Make Mobiles How to […]

Nov 19

Epic Making Session

Yaacov Agam Inspired Work – Over many months now I have been wrestling with a myriad of ideas. In my Study Statement I was keen to develop a new form of hybrid human, digital and AI art. I also wanted to include an element of mystery and discovery whereby elements of the work were hidden. During my search for inspiration I came across two artists that particularly resonated with me, namely: Alexander Calder and Yaacov Agam. I particularly liked the idea of movement and mobile art seen in Calder’s work. Indeed I was so taken with his work that I went to visit the Tate Modern to see some of his pieces there. However, Yaacov Agam’s work really did inspire me. In his Artist’s statement he says: “My aim is to show the visible in a perpetual state of becoming”. I think this is a beautiful way in which he describes his work. However, I personally would liken it to, showing the visible in a perpetual state of change. Given the nature of the subject matter that I’m exploring, his work for me very much aligns with this notion of change as well as ‘becoming’. Below is a short […]

Love Letters From AI

Hidden Art – When I first began my MA, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do. Ultimately I knew it would be something to do with the hidden or the unseen. Initially I began looking at invisible phenomena such as sound waves and the passage of time. However, nothing captured my interest quite as much as augmented reality. It was this whole concept of a hidden unseen world (only accessible to those ‘in the know’), that intrigued me. While conducting research for my Research Paper I discovered that there is a distinct negative bias towards AI generated art. I looked at a number of strategies to help mitigate this bias. Finally, after a number of image polls, used to inform my project, I created a fictitious robot called Athena. Her name was inspired by the old Athena posters from the past. My research was suggesting that humanoid robots with a sad ‘backstory’ could help to reduce bias and win over an audience when presenting AI art. At this point I began to develop a narrative for my robot. During a visit to Barcelona, I was completely amazed by the sheer weight of graffiti adorning the city walls. I […]